Teacher Event Showcases Classroom Resources

More than 120 teachers representing six parishes and 40 public, private, and parochial schools joined Museum educators on September 16 for our fall Teacher Appreciation Happy Hour.

The event showcased the Museum’s newest special exhibit, Fighting for the Right to Fight: African American Experiences in WWII, and highlighted the many ways educators and students can connect to the Museum.

Teachers learned about the Museum’s Operation Footlocker program, which permits teachers anywhere in the United States to borrow a trunk filled with real artifacts from World War II for use in their classroom. They also viewed our Fighting for the Right to Fight Classroom Guides, which are accessible online and provide primary source-based lesson plans for middle and high school students that are aligned with Common Core standards.

Other booths provided teachers with information about the Museum’s field trips (including free ones for Louisiana Title I schools), distance learning opportunities, STEM resources, travel programs, and our one-of-a-kind collection of digitized high school yearbooks from World War II. Teachers also discovered how their students can experience history firsthand through National History Day and the Red Ball Express, the Museum’s mobile outreach program.

Thank you to all the teachers who attended and to the many businesses, educational organizations, and school districts that helped to make the event a huge success!

We will host our next Teacher Appreciation Happy Hour in January. Receive updates about that event, and learn more about our educational resources and programming by signing up for our free monthly e-newsletter Calling All Teachers and following us on Twitter @wwiieducation.

Post by Dr. Walter Stern, K-12 Curriculum Coordinator at The National WWII Museum.